Vajrakilaya

Vajrakilaya (Skt. Vajrakīlaya; Tib. རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕུར་པ་, Dorje Phurba, Wyl.rdo rje phur pa) or Vajrakumara (Skt. Vajrakumāra; Tib. རྡོ་རྗེ་གཞོན་ནུ་, Dorje Shönnu; Wyl. rdo rje gzhon nu) — the wrathful heruka Vajrakilaya is the yidam deity who embodies the enlightened activity of all the buddhas and whose practice is famous for being the most powerful for removing obstacles, destroying the forces hostile to compassion and purifying the spiritual pollution so prevalent in this age. Vajrakilaya is one of the eight deities of Kagyé.

Texts

English translation: Fragment of the Vajrakīla Root Tantra, translated by Martin J. Boord, in A Bolt of Lightning From The Blue (Berlin: edition khordong, 2002), pages 79-90.

Colophon: This fragment of the root tantra of Vajrakīla was translated [into Tibetan] by the illustrious Sakya Pandita in accordance with an original Indian manuscript that had actually belonged to the ācārya Padmasambhava. Requests having been made, it was set down in writing in Shangs Sreg-zhing in the district of gYas-ru (eastern Tsang).

The “Wisdom Mind Practice of ‘One Phurba’” is a terma discovered and deciphered by Tertön Sogyal in the monastery of Kathok Dorjé Den. It was written in the hand of the great Dzogchen master Vairotsana.

Martin Boord, A Bolt of Lightning from the Blue—The Vast Commentary on Vajrakila that Clearly Defines the Essential Points (Berlin: Edition Khordong, 2002), which contains the translation of two short tantras of Vajrakila and a full translation of the most important commentary ever written (Wyl. phur ‘grel ‘bum nag) on the subject of kila rites and their understanding for enlightenment by Padmasambhava, Vimalamitra, and Silamanju.